Keeping a toilet clean is almost a full time job. With that being said, if you don’t clean your toilet seat on a regular basis, it’s going to get stained, especially if there are a bunch of men around. Now, you might think that those urine stains on your toilet seat are permanent because they won’t come off with normal scrubbing and rubbing.
However, there are some really good ways to remove urine stains from toilet seats, and most ways won’t even cost too much money either. Let’s talk about all of the different methods at your disposal to deal with this issue.
4 Best Ways to Remove Urine Stains from a Toilet Seat
Right now we are going to go over the four best ways to remove urine stains from a toilet seat, and first, off we’re going to start with two natural solutions that are cheap and eco-friendly. If those don’t work, you can also use the chemical cleaner methods that are listed below.
1. Using Vinegar
If you are going for a natural approach, then the best thing that you can use to remove urine stains from toilets is plain vinegar. Vinegar contains a variety of organic materials that have the power to remove those stains with ease. Follow the directions as outlined below in order to put this method to use:
- Buy pure white distilled vinegar from your local grocery store.
- Soak some pieces of toilet paper, or even better, of paper towel, with vinegar.
- Place those vinegar-soaked paper towels on the toilet seat, especially where the urine stains are.
- Allow the vinegar to work its magic for two to three hours.
- Remove the vinegar-soaked paper towels.
- Use a toilet brush or a soft sponge to scrub the toilet seat.
- If the stains are still not gone, you can repeat the process or just pour more vinegar onto the affected area. Keep scrubbing until the stains are gone.
- You can dry the area with a cloth, and then, if you wish, use some disinfectant to get rid of any remaining bacteria.
2. Using a Baking Soda Paste
If the vinegar doesn’t work, or you just don’t have any vinegar around, and you need to remove urine stains from your toilet seat right now, then using baking soda might do the trick. Without getting into the science of it, baking soda is well known as being a great stain remover, which is why it is also often used for cleaning clothes. Follow the process below:
- Before you start using baking soda, you do want to use a disinfectant or germ killer in order to clean the toilet seat, just to rid it of any bacteria.
- Now you need to make a paste out of baking soda and water. Start off with about half a cup of baking soda and add just enough water and keep mixing until it forms a thick slurry. Remember that this needs to be a paste, so it shouldn’t be too thin.
- Smear this baking soda paste all over the toilet seat, especially where the urine stains are, and then let it sit for up to 15 minutes.
- Use the toilet brush or any soft sponge to scrub away the urine stains. You may need to apply some water periodically in order to keep the area moist.
- Now, do keep in mind that you may need to apply this baking soda paste to the affected area and then scrub it away multiple times in order for it to work.
- Once the urine stain has been removed, you can then dry off the toilet seat. If you wish, you can now also use some disinfectant to kill off any remaining bacteria.
3. Using a Household Toilet Cleaner
If those two natural solutions didn’t do the trick, then you might want to resort to using a household toilet cleaner, specifically, one that contains bleach. Bleach is a great cleaner and it removes stains really well too, which is why people use it to clean laundry. Bleach is also fantastic at killing germs. Here’s how to do it:
- All you need to do here is to spray your household toilet cleaner onto the affected areas and then let it soak for anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.
- Use a sponge or a toilet scrubber to scrub away the urine stains.
- You may need to repeat this process a few times over.
- Once you have removed the urine stains, make sure to rinse away any remaining cleaner and then dry the toilet seat.
If this method does not work, then move on to the next one which involves using pure bleach.
4. Using Bleach
If normal household cleaner, whether it contains bleach or not, was not able to do the trick, then your last resort is going to be to use bleach itself:
- For this method, you will need to get yourself a bucket or a container that is large enough to fit the whole toilet seat, at least to the area that is urine-stained.
- You now want to make a solution of bleach and water that is about 10 parts water and one part bleach. If the urine stains are very severe, you can always add in some more bleach. We will leave the exact measurements up to you.
- Remove the toilet seat from the toilet and place it in the bucket, making sure that all of the urine stains are totally submerged underneath the bleach and water mixture.
- Allow the toilet seat to sit in the mixture for about 15 to 20 minutes. Once it has been soaking for a while, you can then use a toilet brush or a sponge to scrub away the urine stains.
- Keep in mind that you may need to repeat this process two or three times in order to achieve the desired result.
- Make sure to rinse all of the bleach water off of the toilet seat because you don’t want that stuff touching your skin. Once you have rinsed off the toilet seat, you can then dry it and reattach it to the toilet.
Mistakes to Avoid, Tips & Tricks
While the above should give you a good idea of what you need to do, below are a few extra tips:
- Remember that if you are working with bleach in any capacity, you do want to wear gloves and maybe even goggles, because bleach is extremely corrosive.
- Also keep in mind that bleach is quite harmful to the environment, so it really should only be used as a last resort if everything else fails.
- Remember that whatever of these methods you use, you do have to let those liquids soak into the urine stains in order for them to do their trick. You cannot just spray or apply any of these substances and then immediately scrub them off.
Summary
Now that you know all about the four best ways to remove urine stains from toilet seats, your toilet seat should never have another urine stain again.